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Long titles were once the style of publishing when the title was a sort of abstract and summary of the content of an essay. The first part of my title was given by the competition’s organisers. My response is the second part. So in my title we have both a summary and a dialogue.

The phrase “…answering that of God…” comes from a well-known and much-loved quotation from George Fox1 who founded what became the Quaker movement.

The phrase stops before the last words of the sentence – “in everyone” – to allow a broader interpretation. So we can move on to answer that of God in everyone, in ourselves and in the wider, non-human world.

Answering implies a dialogue – speech, language, and interaction in many different ways - that hints at my vision of a future for the Religions Society of Friends.

1. “Be patterns, be examples in all countries, places, islands, nations, wherever you come, that your carriage and life may preach among all sorts of people, and to them; then you will come to walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of God in every one.” George Fox, 1656, quoted in “Advices and Queries” Quaker faith and practice, BYM, London 2007.